


In Memorium: Joyce Summers

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: In Memorium [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Challenge Response, Character Analysis, Community: tv-universe, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-21 02:37:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A meta discussion of character death: Joyce Summers</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Memorium: Joyce Summers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the TV Universe "In Memorium" challenge, where I was prompted to discuss up to five character deaths that had great impact on me.

Okay, the death of Joyce. I wouldn't say that this character ever particularly resonated with me; I was always far more in synch with Buffy during their mother-daughter fights, and though she was nice and caring, she wasn't really a hugely important person for me. She was huge to Buffy, though, and a big part of the first few seasons. She was really important to character development and Buffy's growing acceptance of her lot in life. And she was especially crucial when the whole Dawn arc was introduced, as she helped develop the belief that Dawn had always been there.

And she got sick, which was sad, but I mean, you kind of expected it. Buffy was growing up and going off to college and she didn't really need a mom character anymore. (And something about the actress taking other jobs, blah blah blah). She was the mommy and leader to the Scoobies and she had Dawn as a sisterly foil and Glory as a 'super-stong little blonde woman who isn't me' foil and where did Joyce fit except in an aborted Joyce/Giles unified family arc?

So she got sick, and it helped introduce the Ben plot, and all was going well in character arc land. Now, of course, we would say that - well, this is Joss, of course the character is going to die - but he didn't quite have that rep at this point on Buffy. Yes, there was Jenny Calendar, and a dozen students at graduation, but he hadn't really become the Grim Reaper that he is now.

So while yes, we expected Joyce to die from this, we didn't expect the _way he did it_.

That episode was heartbreaking and terrifying and so so so _real_.

The setup of her feeling better. The way that we zoomed in on Buffy and saw her pain. We felt the light burn out eyes, heard the warped sounds outside compared to the silence within. We were right there with her when she imagined them all together in the hospital room and she was the savior again. And we were with her when it all fell apart.

We were with Buffy the entire time, and we felt her pain. And Dawn's pain. Once again, she had to sacrifice her own feelings to deal with others, like the Slayer always did. And we were with Willow and Xander and Anya and Tara and Dawn when they went through their own reactions and grief.

What to wear? Punch a wall? Remember your own tragedy? Try to interpret one more emotion just a little beyond you?

Whoever we related to, there was one of us on that screen that week. And that was powerful.

And then, more importantly perhaps than the death - as jarring as it was - was that we dealt with the entire fallout. With Dan Conner, who I talked about before, his death was essentially a footnote, or a spoken epilogue. Powerful, but over quickly. Wash was dead but we had to fight those Reavers and then tell the world and then there was a little memorial and a shiny rock and then credits.

With Buffy's mom, we had to go back to life the next day. And the next. And the next. And we were with Dawn when she decided to make her wish come true. And we felt for her when it was even worse. Everyone who has lost someone wishes they could bring them back, and Dawn, living in a world of supernatural, actually could. She had that power we've all wished for. But she had to make the hard choice.

Did we want to see what was behind that door, or were we secretly glad that she ended it before we had the chance?

As with Oz's departure and Willow's slow road to acceptance, we followed the whole gang through the fallout of Joyce's death for a season and even two more years to come. They dealt with her death just as real people did. Later little things would remind, or trigger, and the tears would happen. Horrible things would go wrong for Buffy and she would just want her mom. It was painful, and long lasting, and entirely _human_.

Everything we both love and hate about Joss.

And that is why Joyce is one of my top five TV character deaths. Because her death, more than any other I've seen, was real. Both for the characters and the audience. And it wasn't over in thirty or sixty minutes. It stuck with us, just like real death would.


End file.
